While issuing these notices, returnable for January 25 next year, a division bench of the court comprising Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Justice Iqbal Singh also directed the various governments to provide the lists of counsel to whom payments have not been made and the explanation for the delay thereof.

The court notice took suo motu cognisance of the matter while hearing a case in which frequent adjournments were sought by the counsel appearing for the Union of India, which was delaying justice.

The judges observed that they had come across many cases where requests for adjournments were made on behalf of theUnion Government, Punjab, Haryana and UT Administration, where the general complaint made before the court was that this was done as neither the written statements were sent in time nor was the fee paid to the counsels concerned for years, which resulted in delayed adjournments.

The judges felt constrained to observe that delay in filing the written statements placed an avoidable burden on the court's time. The non-payment of fee to their counsel was neither fair to the counsel nor the court, they said.